by Lucy Smoke
"Cass, you don't have to go first," Levi protests. "Let me." A part of me wants to let him, another part of me hopes I prove to the both of them just how capable I am. Maybe if Kida doesn't come back, I'll still have a place with them. And then I hate myself for even contemplating that.
"No, I got it," I say, shaking my head as he lowers himself as well. "Give me a few seconds to get to the second ledge down—that's the one you said you wanted—before you follow to the first one."
"We only have a few seconds," Levi replies. "The enforcers are almost at the top by now."
I nod my understanding and begin my descent. I grip the hard ledge of the building, the ring around the roof, as I stretch out one leg to the first ledge and then the other. My fingers dig into the upper ledge, not wanting to let go. One more ledge to go, I just need to get my feet down and my hands on the ledge my feet are currently tiptoeing on.
"Come on, Cass," Levi says. I can hear the anxiousness in his voice.
"Why are you so worried?" I snap, struggling to find the perfect position to lower myself down again. "Vincent will probably just yank a few connections and get you out by morning." If I can just keep my stupid boots from slipping, I can make it.
"It doesn't work that way," Aaron says. "Vincent isn't as influential as he used to be." He pauses and bends down as well. "You do need to go faster, though."
Before I can ask, Levi confirms my suspicions. "They just hit the roof."
Damn. Damn. Damn. There's no other way, I gotta hurry this along. I inhale and hold my breath before I let go of the rooftop's ledge. My booted feet slip off the top metal lip and I grab it as I go down, flinching as one of my nails catches and tears. I scramble for a few seconds trying to keep my feet on the second ledge.
"Shit, Cass." Levi's voice is partial concern and partial fear as he maneuvers down and to the side, swinging one leg to drop onto the second ledge and then the other. On my opposite side, Aaron does the same until all three of us are out of sight.
"You made that look so much easier," I complain.
Even Aaron chuckles as Levi flashes me a grin and shuffles a bit until he's standing, fingers clasped around one edge above and feet balanced on another below, in front of a window. Releasing the top metal lip, he fumbles with finding a pocket knife. I stare at him in shock.
"Are you really going to try and unlock the window?" I ask in astonishment.
He huffs before looking over at me, with the knife clutched in one hand. "Do you have a better plan, Know-It-All?"
"First of all, that's Miss Know-It-All to you. Secondly, yes," I hiss the last word. "Kick the fucking window in."
"What if they hear?" he challenges.
"Just do it," Aaron snaps over my head.
Levi jerks his head up in surprise. I guess that Aaron rarely gets upset with him. But after a very brief glance at him, Levi rolls his eyes and puts his closed pocket knife in his mouth.
"Hold on," he says around the mouthful of metal and plastic. Levi lifts up, holding most of his weight on his arms as his feet leave the bottom ledge completely and anchor on the glass of the window.
"Turn your face away," Aaron instructs me. I do, and the next thing I hear is the cracking of glass as Levi kicks through the bottom half of the window. I turn back just in time to see him disappear into the darkened room. He's cursing a blue streak even as he punches out the rest of the glass before reaching for me. Aaron nudges me forward and I grab Levi's hand even as my boots slip away from the bottom ledge.
I can't help the startled scream that slips out as I plunge down, my chest slamming into the next ledge down, cutting off the sound as the air leaves my lungs in a rush. Above, Levi's still cursing as he clutches my wrist with both hands and starts to lift me up. My arm feels like it's about to be pulled right out of the socket. At almost the exact moment when it is ready to pop free, Levi leans out of the window, hooks an arm around my waist, and falls back.
I land on top of him, breathing heavily, and behind me, I hear Aaron manage to get inside without much fanfare. Outside, in the hallways, there are people screaming at each other. The authoritative sounds of enforcers commanding men and women to get back inside their pods. The room that we've managed to crawl through, looks like an office.
"Well at least no one lives here," I say when I manage to speak again.
Aaron slumps to the ground against the wall by the window. Something wet presses against my leg as I lean up and away from Levi.
It's blood.
"Aaron!" I whisper-yell as I scramble the rest of the way off Levi. "I think he's bleeding." Levi flinches as I kneel next to his legs and run my fingers down the worn fabric of his pants.
"If you wanted to feel me up, all you had to do was ask." Levi grunts as my fingers make contact with a large rip in his pants. A gash runs across his calf and more blood pools over my fingers.
Aaron appears at my side and I blink in surprise. I hadn't seen him move from his position against the wall and suddenly, he is there. "Steady," he says, "we don't know how deep it is."
"It feels pretty fucking deep," Levi hisses through clenched teeth as Aaron tears the fabric of his pants down until they hang in strips on either side of his leg.
In the dim lighting, it's difficult to see much, but I glance around the office looking for anything that may help. The voices of enforcers drift to us through the closed door as I ransack a desk, yanking open drawers and feel through the contents. I find tape and grab it before depositing it beside Levi and Aaron who has finished examining the wound.
"What do you think?" I ask.
"It's not extremely deep, but it might need stitches. Noaz or Haze can sew him up, we just have to get him back to the pod."
"Here," I say, handing him the tape. I bend over and feel along my side until I come to the hem of my shirt. Grabbing the hem, I pull and rip upwards until my mid drift is bare and I'm left holding a strip of fabric.
Levi breathes deep, pressing his head back as I wrap the fabric around his calf. "I'm sorry," I whisper, tying it quickly and tightly.
I feel more than see him shake his head. "No, don't be sorry. I'll be fine. It just hurts like a bitch."
Taking the tape back from Aaron, I tear and place several strips along the top and bottom of the fabric to keep it in place.
"Smart," Aaron comments. I flick a grin his way as I finish placing the last bit of tape on his skin.
"It might not be so much fun to take off," I say. "But at least the makeshift bandage won't slip off as we move."
Aaron lifts his head towards the door. "We might not be able to move for a while. We have to wait for the enforcers to clear out."
"You don't think they're going to go through all of the offices and pods on every floor, do you?" I ask nervously.
"Doubtful," Levi answers from the floor.
"It sucks that we didn't manage to stop and talk to Dallas or Morgan," I say. Levi's hand reaches out, brushing my arm. I reach down and take it. "What is it?" I ask.
"We didn't manage to talk to Dallas, but I did get to speak with Morgan again before the fight started," he says. "I asked him about the Tanks."
"What–" Aaron slaps a hand over my mouth before I can even finish my question. Seconds later, the sound of stomping boots passes by the office door. As soon as they are sufficiently faded, he releases me. I lick my dry lips before trying the question again. "What did he say?"
Levi is quiet for a moment before I can see the outline of his head as it turns towards me and his hand tightens on my fingers. "The Tanks approached him about working for them," he says. "From what he told me, it sounds like they're trying to gain a massive following."
"They're already a large gang," I reply.
"They want to be bigger."
"Big enough for a coup d'état?" Aaron asks.
There is another brief silence as my head reels at the thought. Tanks in charge of Tartarus? It would be the end of the civil rights within the city, the end of even a facade of freedom. My
stomach aches and rolls at the mere thought. I shake my head against the images of beaten women and scarred children—the families of Tanks that I met as a child—as they flicker through my mind.
"There is talk of a coup, Morgan confirmed that," Levi says. "The Tank Morgan spoke with bragged about them having an insider's knowledge of Governor Diamond's inner circle."
"And you think it might be–"
"Kida," I say, cutting off Aaron. It's the only reasonable explanation. Why she's been gone so long, much longer than she ever has been before. Levi's hand squeezes around my fingers, offering reassurance.
"Then we know who has her," Aaron says.
"She's probably dead." A black hole opens up inside my chest and sucks away everything beautiful and good. It's all consuming, taking up space, widening until there is nothing left of my soul.
"No, she's not," Levi says with force. "The Tanks need her and the information she has. From the way Morgan made it sound, they're still using her."
"She wouldn't give up any information and if they're using her..." I close my eyes, but it doesn't erase the horrific images dancing through my mind. No. It only gives them more life.
Leaning down, I release Levi's hand and bury my face in my legs, linking my fingers together over the back of my neck. She can't be dead, but if she isn't...the other possibility is just too awful for me to voice.
I know the Tanks. I know how they work, know how they think. Tanks are men for men. They see no tolerance for stupidity and those who can't follow orders. Anyone not male is weak. It still comes as a shock to me, even now, that my father didn't simply kill me after my mother left. It was only when I was older that I understood why. I understood that even if I was weak in his eyes, I was still property and I could be bought and sold as such.
"Cass?" Levi tries to scoot closer to me, but I don't raise my head. I shake it when I feel him reaching out to me.
"Why couldn't she have just stayed out of it?" I'm not asking them, or really anyone but, still, it seems like a good question. "I asked her to stop being reckless. To stop taking on jobs that made her go away so often." For selfish reasons, I remember. I didn't like waking up without her somewhere in the pod. It didn't sit right, and I worry so much for her.
"You can't control her, Cass," Levi's voice is soft, understanding. As if he can see directly into my head and all the dark possibilities swirling there.
"I just need her here," I say quietly, lifting my head and dropping my arms. "I need her back. I need her to be here, and I need her to be okay. When we find her–" If we find her, my mind sadistically reminds me. "When we find her, I'm wrapping her up and she's never leaving the pod without me again."
Levi sighs, but before he can disagree and chastise me, Aaron speaks up. "Do you really think she'll let you do that?" he asks. "Though I've never met Vincent's goddaughter, she doesn't strike me as the type of person that would allow herself to be controlled and policed so forcefully."
"She doesn't have a choice," I snap, turning my head to him in the dark. "I can't take this anymore! If she wants to keep living with me, if she wants..." I realize how loud I'm getting and I stop, taking a breath to calm myself. Before I can continue though, Aaron's talking again.
"You need to learn that people can't always be controlled, especially not friends or family. Out of all the people that are going to be in your life, those are the least controllable. Humans are adaptable and changeable. What's more, they need that ability to survive. We wouldn't have survived as a species if we weren't adaptable. If humans hadn't left the Earth's surface, we wouldn't be here today."
I sit in the darkness of the office, listening to the sounds of departing enforcers from the broken window. A breeze blows through and I lift my face, turning it, and feel the air across my heated skin.
"You want to protect her, I understand that very much," Aaron says quietly. "But perhaps you need to look further into why you wish to control so much."
"I don't–"
"You don't see it," he cuts me off, "but you were scared up on the roof, on the cage. When I offered to help you—to carry you down—you balked. You don't trust me yet, I know. You don't trust anyone fully. Not even your friend, Kida. Otherwise, you might understand that whatever she's done, or what she is doing, it's important enough that she had to leave you. It doesn't mean she will be gone forever, but when she comes back, maybe you'll be changed. Maybe you will be able to adapt, as humans do, and able to survive without her just for now."
My nostrils flare as I try to hold in my emotions. My eyeballs burn, my nose twitches with the resistance to my tears. I shake my head, trying to clear it all away. The feelings don't leave, though. Not until Levi sits up.
"I think they're gone now," he says. "We need to go."
Aaron stands at my side, reaching down, and despite my refusal of his help, he leans down, gripping my arms and hauls me to my feet. I step back when he brushes my hair behind my shoulder with his fingers. "It is the human condition to fight for something. Be it survival, hope, or control."
"I don't want to lose her." My voice cracks on the last word and my face flames red at the vulnerability.
His large hands settle on my shoulders. "Even Earthians said that if you love something, you must learn to let it go. It's never truly yours until you know for sure it will always come back to you."
I don't know how to respond to such a pure statement and he doesn't really give me a chance. Aaron turns and helps Levi to his feet as well, slinging one of the smaller man's arms over his large muscular shoulder. I rush ahead of the two of them and unlock the office door, peeking my head out into a deserted hallway. I nod to let them know that the coast is clear, and they amble to the doorway while I keep my booted foot pressed against the bottom of the door to hold it open.
Nine
Dark Ghost
The streets nearby are deserted as well when we exit the building on foot. My nerves are shot. We had to use the elevator due to Levi being considerably impaired at the moment. The sounds of nearby people, and even faded sirens as enforcers are called away, ricochet off the straight chrome buildings, echoing and making it sound even louder than it actually is.
Even though it's hot and the sky had been clear earlier in the day, the night overhead rumbles with an incoming storm.
"Do you think it's electric?" I ask as we make our way down the street, looking for either a vehicle to commandeer or another way to get back to the guys' pod.
Levi shakes his head even as sweat beads on his brow. "No lightning," he says.
Down the street, around the corner, there are more lights lit and people walking along the streets. As I glance back to Aaron and Levi, someone grabs my arm. I whirl around as a tall man with a stern face clad in a navy blue starched enforcer uniform frowns down at me.
"Where are you coming from?" he demands.
"I-I was just. We were just heading–"
"Where are your credentials? Your identification?" He looks behind me towards Aaron and Levi.
"We're not in a vehicle, sir," Aaron says with a low, respectful—albeit tense—tone. "We don't have them on us."
I pull back, moving away from the enforcer, eyes wide as I edge closer to the guys. The enforcer turns his gaze back to me. "Did I say you could move?" His dark brown eyes glare at me. I frown.
"I just–"
"I don't care what you just," he snaps. "If you don't have your credentials on you, I'll have to take you in."
"But that's not–"
The enforcer grips my arm once more and jerks me away from Aaron and Levi.
"Hey!" Levi's angry tone doesn't faze the enforcer. My nerves somehow transcend my fear and I glare outright at the man.
"You can't take anyone in without cause," I snap.
"I have cause," he states.
Looking into this face, the dark, bearded shadow and the sunken eyes—the color of shit—all I see is anger. It's confusing.
"What cause do you have?" Levi demands.
/> A thick, muscular arm drops between me and the enforcer. Aaron stands a good few inches taller than the enforcer, but the other man doesn't notice. My heartbeat picks up. A raindrop hits my cheek and slides down to my neck.
"What cause do you have?" Aaron repeats the question as he grasps the enforcer's arm and firmly tugs it away from mine.
The wicked smile that spreads across the enforcer's face is decidedly out of place. I don't like the way he releases me so easily and turns to focus his sole intentions on Aaron. Levi must sense it too.
"Aaron," he says.
I gasp when the enforcer reaches behind him into the back of his uniform pants and whips out his stun gun so quickly that I almost don't catch what it is before I'm shoving Aaron as hard as possible at the same time kicking out at the knee of the enforcer.
The stun gun erupts as his finger presses the trigger and I choke out a startled scream as it hits me squarely in the solar plexus. I gasp and slump down. The enforcer curses and fumbles as he falls. A dark splotch of ink on the side of his neck, peeking out of his uniform makes my blood run ice-cold, but I can't speak around the twitching pain surfing through my body.
Aaron dives over me to the enforcer, slamming a fist into the man's temple, knocking him out cold before he can manage to get a good grip on his stun gun. Wild eyes find me as I hear Levi cursing up a storm. My legs feel like jelly and my nerves are shot. Tears leak from my eyes, running in rivulets down my face. It hurts so fucking bad, I can't even be embarrassed by my weakness. I need to warn them, though, before we get away.
Strong, heavily tattooed arms reach for me. One under my collapsed knees and another behind my back. I shake my head violently, trembling and digging my nails into his arms, trying to get him to stop and look at me as I try to jerkily point out the tattoo on the unconscious enforcer's neck.
Aaron stops, frowning down at me, but Levi catches what I'm trying to do as he hobbles up next to us and looks down at the man.
